Aster’s (ASTER) hot streak in perpetual trading is cooling fast. The token slid another 12% in the past 24 hours to around $1.09, losing all short-term structural support after a two-week selloff.
Despite topping decentralized perpetual volume charts with $10.6B in daily trades, market sentiment has turned defensive, with traders eyeing the $1.07–$1.02 zone as the next make-or-break region.
For now, bulls are clinging to the psychological $1.10 level, but the tone across both charts and on-chain flows suggests fatigue after an explosive September rally.
Whale Dump and Rising DEX Competition Weigh on Aster Price
On-chain data paints a clear picture of heavy profit-taking. According to onchainschool.pro, a major Aster whale offloaded over $100 million in tokens to Binance over the past two weeks, realizing a $34 million loss as price collapsed 50% from $2.00 to $1.00.
The exit appears to have marked the local top, fueling cascading liquidations across perpetual markets.
Meanwhile, DeFiLlama shows Aster still posting strong network fundamentals, roughly $3B annualized fees and $245M in monthly revenue, but liquidity rotation is accelerating toward competitors like Lighter and Hyperliquid, both closing the gap with more than $10B and $8B in 24-hour volume respectively.
Adding fuel to the rotation narrative, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko recently unveiled Percolator, a high-performance perpetual DEX that directly challenges Aster’s dominance. Traders fear this could siphon liquidity, especially from Aster’s active arbitrage and yield-farming cohort.
That said, Aster’s fundamentals remain intact. Its total market cap sits around $2.2B, and DeFi volume retention still dwarfs most new entrants. But with heavy exits and a damaged chart, momentum is clearly on pause.
Chart Signals Hint at Possible $1.00 Retest
Technical indicators show that the ASTER coin price has lost all major moving averages and structural support in its previous consolidation range.
Price action briefly found relief near $1.08, but traders like Ardi note that bulls must reclaim $1.10–$1.13 to prevent deeper chart damage.
Failure to do so opens the door to a retest of $1.02, the previous local bottom. Below that, liquidity thins rapidly; a clean sweep could drag price briefly under $1.00 before dip buyers return.
Short-term bias remains slightly bearish at the moment, with resistance stacked above and only thin demand supporting the $1 zone. Unless volume rotation slows or new catalysts appear, Aster may consolidate lower before finding footing.
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